Thanks for visiting. On a daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

The Blog for Saturday, May 11, 2013

The intrepid Matt Taibbi wrote yesterday about "the much-talked-about, much-dreaded potential sale of the Tribune newspaper group to the odious Koch brothers. As first reported in the Times a few weeks ago, the Kochs, after years of working through the media with relentless lobbying and messaging, are exploring the idea of skipping the middleman and becoming media themselves, with the acquisition of one of the biggest media groups in the country."

Taibbi continues:

The Tribune papers encompass eight major publications across the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the Allentown Daily Call, the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, the Baltimore Sun, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Hartford Courant, the Daily Press of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and Hoy, America's second-largest Spanish-language paper. . . .

It should go without saying that the sale of this still-potent media empire to the cash-addled Koch brothers duo – lifetime denizens of a sub-moronic rightist echo chamber where everything from Social Security to Medicare to unemployment benefits to the EPA are urgent threats to national security, and even child labor laws are evidence of an overly intrusive government – would be a disaster of epic proportions. One could argue that it would be on par with the Citizens United decision in its potential for causing popular opinion to be perverted and bent by concentrated financial interests. . . .

Conservative pundits have made no bones about their excitement at the prospect of doing an ethnic cleansing of the rolls of all these newspapers. One of the future affected, the Chicago Tribune's Cal Thomas – simultaneously one of the stupidest and most charmless columnists ever to keep a death-grip on a job at a major American daily for decades on end – gushed about how happy he will be when his office is finally rid of all the Bolshevik intellectuals he's been forced to share space with, and full up instead with unbiased folks like himself . . . .

Not apparent from Taibbi's story is that, if the neoconservative Orlando Sentinel falls into the clutches of the Koch Brothers, right-wing extremists will have essentially perfected their control of the major newspapers that dominate the politically critical I-4 Corridor. To be sure, the Sentinel has always been conservative, albeit courageously opposing dumping raw sewage into Florida's lakes and streams and the outright purchase of elected officials, and it on occasion has endorsed Democratic candidates for political office; these pretensions aside, the Sentinel is by and large a right-wing organ in the midst of a blue Orange County*.

Nevertheless, the Koch Brothers' Tribune/Orlando Sentinelpurchase will likely end even pretensions to neutrality in the future.

The Tampa Tribune and the Daytona Beach News Journal, the newspapers that book end the Corridor are out right-wing rags. On the other side of the Bay, the former Saint Petersburg Times, recently renamed the Tampa Bay Times, was once considered Florida's "liberal" newspaper, but in reality is only marginally different than the Trib or the News Journal on many major substantive issues, largely toeing the Chamber of Commerce line, for example, regularly attacking public employee fringe benefits, including defined benefit pension plans. Not surprisingly, and perhaps due to the proximity of the overtly right-wing Trib more than anything else, the Times is considered "liberal" or "progressive" by some.

That said, the Koch Brothers' acquisition of the Orlando Sentinel will be a setback to what little remains of bona fide, independent print journalism along Florida's I-4 Corridor**.

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*Orange County votes Dem in national elections; however, representation in Tallahassee skews Republican due to gerrymandering.

**The Sun-Sentinel in Broward County, is the other Florida newspaper the subject of the Koch brothers acquisition. The Sun Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel are in many respects the same outlet (see the post below).

Rick Scott's "display of uninspired leadership"

The Orlando Sentinel's editorial board is unimpressed with Mr. Scott:

With the legislative session over and the dust of lawmakers departing Tallahassee barely settled, Gov. Rick Scott this week took to the campaign trail for a victory lap that was more a display of uninspired leadership than a cause for celebration.

Winning pay raises for teachers and eliminating the state sales tax on new manufacturing equipment are good things, but hardly the stuff of legends.

*As an aside, it is unfortunate to see the Orlando Sentinel's fellow Trib Company employees over at the Sun Sentinel - a purportedly independent editorial board - chime in with an essentially identical editorial this morning; they (claim to) write:

With the legislative session over and the dust of lawmakers departing Tallahassee barely settled, Gov. Rick Scott this week took to the campaign trail for a victory lap that was more a display of uninspired leadership than a cause for celebration.

Winning pay raises for teachers and eliminating the state sales tax on new manufacturing equipment are good things, but hardly the stuff of legends.

"As early voting in House District 2 wraps up and residents of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties gear up for Tuesday's GOP primary to replace the late Clay Ford, the candidate vying to become the Florida House's only black Republican says his campaign's internal polling has him leading by double digits." "Mike Hill Claims Double-Digit Lead in HD 2 Race to Replace Clay Ford".

Aaron Deslatte: "With the 60-day lawmaking session complete, Florida legislators are wasting no time getting back to what they do the other 10 months of the year: raising copious amounts of cash from wealthy donors and companies."

And thanks to a campaign-finance bill Gov. Rick Scott signed last week, the campaign-fundraising process is likely to be more opaque than ever.

The Tampa Bay Times editors: "When Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater charges $49,370 for a joint replacement and Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville charges $118,735 for the same procedure, something is out of whack. It turns out that the entire enterprise of hospital billing is largely a farce that is most unfair for those who may be able to afford health care the least. It's one more sign of how America's health care system is in need of reform. Without transparent prices, consumers' care is at the whim of whatever someone else decides they can afford." "Hospital pricing hurts uninsured most".

The Tampa Trib editors: "It is small comfort that the Florida Legislature swiped only $45 million of health care funds from Hillsborough and other urban counties, instead of the $245 million that it had originally intended to take."

The number may be lower, but the Legislature still pilfered money from counties that use local tax dollars to help the poor.

It is a dangerous precedent. You can be sure that there will be efforts in future sessions to increase the amount that is diverted to counties that contribute nothing to help treat the poor.

The Tampa Bay Times editors: "The enduring Tallahassee myth that nuclear power is always cheaper has cost Duke Energy customers billions of dollars with nothing to show for it. A new analysis of the long-term cost of the proposed nuclear plant in Levy County — the kind that ideally would have already been done by regulators — should finally change the conversation. The Florida Public Service Commission, long the lapdog of utilities, will soon have clear authority to halt advanced fees for a nuclear plant that will likely never be built. If commissioners don't take action, they do not deserve reappointment." "The high price of nuclear fantasies".